Essay: Man, Know Thyself

[Lou Gold]

Might there by a pure potential without light that precedes it?

Yes there is. The Sun is not the highest being. But we can only go higher if we pass through the Sun.

John 14:6 No one comes to the Father except through me.

Can this be an 'immanence' in the sense of a manifestation from potential such as "Let there be Light" -- A coming from rather rather than a moving toward?

[Cleric K]

Can this be an 'immanence' in the sense of a manifestation from potential such as "Let there be Light" -- A coming from rather rather than a moving toward?

I'm not sure I understand your question. I only suspect that you are asking if we are moving only toward or we are also moving away. If that's the case, the answer would be that we are constantly alternating between the two in rhythmic patterns. There are countless such rhythms.

One grand rhythm is the overall Cosmic involution and evolution. But this doesn't mean that everything moves monotonically away and towards. It's rhythms within rhythms everywhere. Expansion and contraction, away and towards. The cultural epochs are such rhythms. Our incarnations too - we move away when we incarnate and expand in our earthly life then we move 'toward'. It's also interesting to note here the duality. From certain perspective we can say exactly the opposite - when incarnating we contract from the wide expanses of space into a single bodily vehicle then we expand again into the One Cosmic environment. So both are correct - it's two different perspectives of seeing the same thing.
Another of the many rhythmic modulations is the daily waking/sleeping cycle. At morning we expand into the sensory world/contract into the body. At night we contract away from the senses and draw into our core, which is at the same time expansion away from the body and into the wide expanses.
The rhythm is also modulated through the whole day - with every feeling, thought, action we either become engulfed and contract into something or expand and encompass the whole. Our every thought is born of a rhythm - we expand with our will toward the unknown Idea and then contract a thought-perception.

So it's not about restricting ourselves into monotony. Existence simply doesn't operate in this way. It's more about expanding in consciousness (which is also achieved only rhythmically) to recognize the rhythms and bring them into harmony. A symphonic orchestra is an analogy. Everyone experiences their rhythms, the violinist moves the bow back and forth, the tubist breathes in and out through the instrument. Yet harmony occurs only if everyone strives to synchronize with the overall rhythm of the partitures and then on a higher level with the conductor. Cosmic Life is harmonious already. It's humans' task to expand their consciousness and synchronize with the living and rhythmically breathing Life of Cosmic Ideas, so that our smaller contractions and expansions can always be in harmony with the higher context. What we call evil can be considered as the fact the beings devise their own rhythms and the result is Cosmic cacophony.

Now the symphony analogy might be understood as a threat to freedom - that we become puppets for the higher rhythms. But it's not so. The rhythms shouldn't be envisioned as something that restricts but as something that defines the domains of potential. We are actually most free when we recognize these domains and use their full spectrum. It's another kind of freedom to say "who are these these rhythms that I should conform? I bow to nobody!" and then we try to realize potential that's at the very borders of the domains (because even if we want to, we can't realize inaccessible potential). And it's a valid type of freedom - no doubt about it - it's the freedom to restrict ourselves.

We are too small to override the rhythms larger than us. We can't override the rotation of the Earth and the day/night cycle. Then if we want to play non-conformist and go star gazing at noon we shouldn't be surprised if we return home filled with frustration and anger. This is a childish example but truth is humanity is currently even less than a child in regards to the hidden rhythms that are not directly perceptible in the sensory world. We again feel the frustration and anger, only that we don't understand that we're trying to star gaze at noon or sunbathe at night.

[Lou Gold]

Can this be an 'immanence' in the sense of a manifestation from potential such as "Let there be Light" -- A coming from rather rather than a moving toward?

I'm not sure I understand your question. I only suspect that you are asking if we are moving only toward or we are also moving away. If that's the case, the answer would be that we are constantly alternating between the two in rhythmic patterns. There are countless such rhythms.

etc

OK, I believe I grok what you are saying and suspect that we have have been inquiring about the same thing from different perspectives, at moments perhaps from even different sides of the 'pinhole'?. This poem by David Wagoner can serve as an analogy:

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

Or, as when Jacob Collier is asked what he wants to be at age 30 and responds, "Alive" and goes on to say, "If I have a plan, it won't happen." I like the symphony and rhythm metaphors you used and think you'll find them in living action throughout the interview I posted. Another way to see the
choiceless-choice questions you address is to ask if, in this video, JC-the-performer is yielding to the conductor or the conductor is yielding to JC-the-composer or if both of them and the whole orchestra are responding to something beyond them?



Or, vastly more profoundly and with a due nod to Shu:

[Soul_of_Shu]

And for good measure, how about this version (lest one refrain from posting the refrain of 12 or so other versions)

[Soul_of_Shu]

With the usual synchronicity, this just popped up in the YT feed, which seems to pertain to the theme ...

[Lou Gold]

With the usual synchronicity, this just popped up in the YT feed, which seems to pertain to the theme ...

Yes, indeed -- "God and the world caught up in a reciprocal call-and-response jazz improvisation" is exactly what I grok performatively in the productions of JC.

Of course, I love what Matt has to say about nature. I recalled from my early years of wilderness vigils the realization that I no longer craved music, that after listening to the wind I no longer craved Bach or Mozart. I also recall being in the violence of a thunderstorm AND sensing a "peace that passeth understanding." Beauty is a very big topic to be endlessly explored but never conquered. As JC said in the interview, "If I have a plan, it won't happen."

[Lou Gold]

For Cleric,

Please note that I do not object to your Christian imagery. The Holy Cross, Jesus and Mary were my 'pinhole'. However, I seem to understand phrases like "narrow is the way" as meaning "drop the judgements and cultural baggage" and be in childlike curiosity and innocence in order to receive God. And, after passing through the tiny 'pinhole' into the vastness of no judgement (forgiveness), it seems that God has many names (including no name) and offers many portals according to the needs of the great diversity of God's children, all of whom are loved dearly in a vast interwoven net of being called the Cosmos.